AAP ministers ‘arrogant’, Delhi far from being corruption-free state

New Delhi: While taking oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the second time on February 14 this year at the historic Ramlila Maidan, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal had cautioned his party workers to not become arrogant after entering the corridors of power.

“I would like to urge all of you not to be arrogant. Otherwise, we will meet the same fate five years down the line. We have to serve people of Delhi as they have given such a massive mandate to us and we are grateful to them,” Kejriwal told the cheering crowd of supporters on February 10, 2015 after his party’s landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly polls.

However, a survey conducted by NewsGram from 3rd to 15th December this year across different parts of Delhi revealed that the majority of the people believe that as compared to Kejriwal’s previous 49-day government, the top officials and ministers in the current regime are less approachable and that power seems to have gone to their heads.

NewsGram asked as many as 1500 people in the national capital if they felt Kejriwal and his ministers had become arrogant. While 57 per cent people replied in affirmative, 22 per cent of the respondents said ‘no’ and 21 per cent were not sure about the issue.

When asked if Kejriwal and his ministers reach out to them in order to listen to their grievances, 52 per cent said ‘no’ while only 19 per cent people replied in the affirmative; 29 per cent people were not sure.

The AAP government led by Kejriwal had also promised to make Delhi India’s first corruption-free state by drastically reducing graft through well-thought out measures.

However, 57 per cent of the Delhiites who took part in the survey said they had to pay bribes to government officials in order to get their work done in the past 10 months.37 per cent had no such experience while 6 per cent people were not sure about the issue. At the same time 49 per cent of the respondents said they believed corruption had gone down under the current AAP government, 34 per cent said ‘no’ and 17 per cent were not sure about the issue.

Good governance was a major poll plank of the fledgling AAP with promises of free electricity, water, and quality infrastructure topping their agenda. We asked Delhiites if they were happy with the condition of Delhi’s schools, colleges, hospitals etcetera and majority of them i.e. 48 per cent said they were satisfied while 41 per cent people replied in the negative. Only 11 per cent people were not sure about the matter.

Likewise, when questioned if they were happy with Delhi’s water and electricity services, 49 per cent people replied in the negative, 41 per cent of the respondents said ‘yes’ while 10 per cent people were not sure about the issue.

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A global anti-corruption watchdog says the United States has dropped four spots in its list of nations’ anti-corruption efforts and is now no longer listed in the top 20 for the first time.

Acting U.S. Representative at Transparency International, Zoe Reiter, calls a four point drop in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) a “red flag.”

She says it comes at a time when the U.S. is experiencing “threats to its system of checks and balances” and an “erosion of ethical norms at the highest levels of power.”

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“If this trend continues, it would indicate a serious corruption problem in a country that has taken a lead on the issue globally,” Reiter says.

The United States scored a 71 in the perceptions index after scoring 75 the previous year.

“The expert opinion captured by the CPI supports the deep concern over corruption in government reported by America in our 2017 survey. Both experts and the public believe the situation is getting worse,” Reiter said.

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Transparency International uses several criteria for measuring how well a country is fighting corruption, including checks and balances on political power, controls on conflicts of interest and private influence on government, and voter suppression.